If you’re going to make a movie about a subject as non-cinematic as professional poker, you might as well go all in. In other words, how is the game at this level really played? But Gil Cates Jr.’s Deal offers little beyond a few clichéd lessons about “tells” — as in, “He rubs his face when he has a bad hand!” Burt Reynolds’s Tommy, a retired player who never won it all, is the dispenser of such knowledge, as he mentors Alex (Bret Harrison), the youngest star on the pro circuit. Their relationship is the movie’s, uh, ace in the hole, and Alex’s vulnerability (he’s no good with the ladies) is a nice touch. But of course they have a falling-out, and after you know it, they’re facing each other in the finals of the biggest tournament. Which calls to mind Burt’s #1 lesson: “You don’t play the cards. You play the players.” And you don’t watch Deal. You watch your watch. 100 minutes | Boston Common + Fresh Pond + suburbs

Face off If you were an ordinary Catholic boy in parochial school, giving nuns as hard a time as you were getting, you probably ended up with the usual stories of ruler-rapped knuckles. If you grew up to be talented playwright John Patrick Shanley, you ended up writing Doubt: A Parable , a fascinating exploration of the quicksand of certainty.

Review: Coco Before Chanel Based on the book by Edmonde Charles-Roux, Anne Fontaine's soaper of a bio-pic traces the fashion icon's life before the perfume and the bouclé suits.

Review: Aliens in the Attic As a kid, I was absurdly unpicky about my entertainment: shoddy '80s anime , reruns of This Old House , staring cross-eyed at our basement's pegboard wall to achieve a Magic Eye 3-D effect — these were all totally acceptable ways of whiling away an afternoon.

Reflections on a golden filmmaker John Huston had such a long, illustrious career as a film director — just a few years short of half a century — that any series in his honor that isn’t comprehensive has to feel truncated.

Starting from Scratch If the hip-hop generation ever calls for martial law, the revolution will be sponsored by Scion. The rectangularly adventurous car company is our closest corporate ally, bankrolling a large segment of the low-slung-pants community, and providing the rest of us with sweet events that rarely dent the pocket.

Untrue north Just as there are many universes in the world of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (published in Great Britain as Northern Lights ), so there are many movies in this New Line adaptation.

REVIEW: EXTRACT | September 02, 2009 I'm hard-pressed to say, though, whether Extract is a significant leap forward for Judge in terms of story or just not as funny as his earlier work.

SOUL MEN | November 05, 2008 Mac especially is a joy to watch, and a counterpoint to the humor elsewhere, as he breaks out Temptations-style moves with just the right mix of sly fun and respect for the music.

FILTH AND WISDOM | October 27, 2008 As the lead character narrates his “filthy” story, and those of his London flatmates/neighbors, we hit upon boredom long before wisdom can arrive.

CITY OF EMBER | October 15, 2008 Kids who see the truth when adults cannot is a central idea in children’s stories, but today’s kids would hardly recognize the grown-ups in Ember’s totalitarian society.

IGOR | September 16, 2008 Nothing like walking out of a theater with your kid asking, “Daddy, what is suicide?”